Rose of Damascus lyrics

The candle stutters in the desert breeze

Sets the characters dancing on a dusty page

The hearts of darkness beat in the starlight

A burning bush, the ashes glow, charcoals blacken the embers

Show the words of the prophet

The promise of miracles, prayers of deliverance, faith in the fire

Before a timeless dawn the shadows crawl, the dew evaporatеs

The rising sun signals the movemеnt a world in motion

The woodsmoke lingers in the patchy thorns

Where partridge scuffle a nervous squall, a panicking hare breaks from his cover

The figures wander through familiar lands

The razored rock, the scorching sands

Follow the footsteps of lost generations

That gathered the flowers to place in their baskets

The scent of the petals carries the memories

The eternal fragrance of the rose of Damascus

In the back of a bouncing car

Potholes abound on the dark road to city lights

Heading for coffee bars, singing along to the songs on the radio

The spell of a Friday night

Bewitches their hearts and banishes sadness

Lost in their teenage dreams, careless and free to their fate, they're oblivious

Her blouse unbuttoned, she opens the collar

Checks the mirror for her lipstick smile

Smoothing her dress, she glances behind her

Condemning eyes are now so far away

She moves in the bustling crowds

Her confidence shows, her presence invisible

The beat of the pulsing night lifting her

High on the wings of a butterfly

Deaf to the gathering storm, screams in the darkness

Whispers in alleyways

She joins with the growing throng, carried away unaware of her destiny

She breathes in the wind of change, heady with hope

The promise of freedoms

Leaving the lights behind, a tear in her eye

She heads into the darkness

She wraps her skirts in ancient tissue paper

Folds them away within the cellophane

Her heels in boxes, her blouse fully buttoned

She hides her heart until another day

She breathes in the wind of change, heady with hope

The promise of freedoms

Joining the growing throng, carried away unaware of her destiny

Defiance scrawled on the walls

Inspiring the ranks of keyboard warriors

The authors are all long gone, snatched in their sleep

Or dreaming in uniforms

Guarding the cellar doors from the chill powdered snows

From the Anti-Lebanon

That silently lay a shroud on the fields of the dead

And the Damask roses

Colourless men under colourless skies herd broken creatures

Reeking of fear into dark caves for slaughter

Desiccated heads pinned on the rusty railings, in a flyblown square

Where the pendulums of corpses, hanging from the streetlights

Mark silent time, on a never-ending war

Cynical rockets fly in on soft targets

Creeping artillery round up the districts

Over which helicopters hover, carrying Pandora's boxes to eviscerate

To eliminate the survivors below

Sleek roaring jets glint on the horizon

To arrive in a moment to unleash merciless retribution

A hellish symphony, a monotonous cacophony

A soundtrack for the carnage

On the petrified innocents, the interminable onslaught

From unchallenged skies

She came to in the rubble, in the debris of her memories

In a broken world she couldn't recognise

She wanders in the landscape, a solemn wraithlike figure

In the company of ghosts she knew before

Through the canyons of the labyrinth

The twisted concrete skeletons

The clouds of smoke and dust that fill the skies

The blinding light, it fell out of the heavens

And changed her life forever

She's no one left, everything has gone, she knows she has to leave

Nowhere to shelter, no food, no heat, no water

Struggling to survive

On the edge of the shadows, she's aware the snipers follow;

The clock is ticking down

She was searching for a vision, some sign to give direction

In this wasteland where it's a curse to be alive

When there across the crippled street, on a terracotta balcony

A splintered shard of colour caught her eye

The sweet familiar fragrance, the delicate fragile petals

Of the Damask rose

The flowers blown and battered, the roots exposed and tattered

It wills to thrive

Her nurturing hand wraps the treasured cuttings

In a fist of moistened clay

To carry on her journey, to find another homeland

Somewhere to blossom and come alive

The windscreen wipers battle futilely

Against the swirling dust storms

Their soothing rhythm and the movement of the bus

Providing some temporary reassurance

Lulling her into an uneasy sleep

Cautiously threading their way along ancient smugglers routes

Down through the valleys

Under a ceiling of stark starlight, her only baggage

The fragments of the horrors she couldn't leave behind

The passage was paid for in greedy exchanges

With callous strangers full of promises and peddling hope

Whose cold lecherous eyes followed her

As she took the transport up the coast

To a deserted inlet out of sight of prying eyes and guardian angels

She felt the sands shift under her feet

The waves racing up onto the moonlit beach

Dancing around her ankles

The ebb pulling her further into the swelling tide

Allowing the powerful but gentle lift of the chilling waters

To carry her to waiting hands

To be pulled up onto the fearful overcrowded boat

She stares out into the night towards the dark sea

That disappears into the horizon

Her past slips into the distance behind

Her as she nurses the slender waxed-cotton bundle

That holds her treasured stems, her roots, her legacy

Her destiny

• Artist:Fish
• Album:Weltschmerz (2020)